Dunlow is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in southern Wayne County,

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, United States, on Twelvepole Creek. Originally a small settlement called Twelvepole, it was greatly expanded after entrepreneur Jedediah Hotchkiss chose the village for development along the route of the

Norfolk & Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

(N&W) ine that was being laid out to the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

. The town was laid out along the N&W's Ohio Extension in 1892, and was incorporated the same year. The area had plentiful coal deposits that were expected to be exploited. Population in 1892 was about 200, with a school, church, and a 70-room hotel. The town became the headquarters of the Guyandotte Coal Land Association, which administered land transactions for coal-related businesses. A devastating fire in December 1901 destroyed most of the center of town, which never recovered. The population in 1919 was 75. Coal in the vicinity of Dunlow was found to be unprofitable to mine. The railroad up the West Fork of Twelvepole Creek through Dunlow was shut down in the early 1930s, supplanted by the newer, straighter Big Sandy Line, and what is left of the town is unincorporated. At the 2000 census, the Dunlow postal district had a population of 1,105. In 2009, the population in zip code 25511 was listed as 961. Dunlow is noted for its wildlife sightings. There have been several accounts of sightings of

black panther A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...

s and other jungle animals in Dunlow. A circus train that derailed in the mid-1940s, from which several jungle creatures escaped and were never recovered, is rumored to be the source of these animals.

Cities and towns located near Dunlow

* Breeden (8.2 miles) * Crum (9.2 miles) *

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

(7.3 miles) * Kiahsville (3.9 miles) * Ranger (11.3 miles) * Wilsondale (5.8 miles) * Cove Gap (6.3 miles) * Doane (3.4 miles) *

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

(4.7 miles) * Upper Tug, Kentucky (9.0 miles)

Climate

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Dunlow has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.Climate Summary for Dunlow, West Virginia
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Cities and towns located near Dunlow

Climate

See also

References

Further reading